I used so many word processors and DTP programs that I forget in which it is style sheets and in which it is templates.

It is only now, that I see why I got comments from two teachers saying he was very consistant in his page layout. I taught him to use templates (style sheets) because it makes it easier to automate many items, like putting title, name in header and date, page number and HDD location in the footers. It also helps with left and right pages so that pages can be punched cleanly.

And for correspondence automatic insertion of sender addr, date etc, and putting in tags for sendee addr, subject etc.

Therefore something that should be taught early, not late in the teaching of WP.

(Reuters) - The startup behind the algebra app that overtook Angry Birds as No. 1 in the Norwegian app store earlier this year aims to replicate that success globally next year with four more mathematics games.

Andreas Schleicher, special adviser on education at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), says the US is now the only major economy in the world where the younger generation is not going to be better educated than the older.

Andreas Schleicher, special adviser on education at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), says the US is now the only major economy in the world where the younger generation is not going to be better educated than the older.

Dangerous idea, unless it is a move to cut the education budget.
Based on the performance as published by the government a large percentage of the teachers would get a pay cut.

But as most teachers have to do as they are told, by the government, and not do their best to teach the subject, maybe the best place to start with "paying what they are worth" should start at the top.

I think that I need to read further into this before reaching a proper considered comment. But upon first glance, I have my worries about it. But, the Telegraph is a respected source of opinion so I will seriously consider what they say.

Literacy and innumeracy was reported at 5% of the adult population by the end of the 1960s. I saw it had risen to close on 23% now, all due to better more effective teaching??It's good to be back amongst friends and colleagues

The ultimate reason that Americans are unable to discipline their children is that they have no authority over them. The American state, together with private industry, especially the "helping professions," have usurped their authority in loco parentis, thus empowering physicians, psychologists, judges, social workers, dentists and other health workers by, in effect, reducing people to parental incompetence.

Dangerous idea, unless it is a move to cut the education budget.
Based on the performance as published by the government a large percentage of the teachers would get a pay cut.

But as most teachers have to do as they are told, by the government, and not do their best to teach the subject, maybe the best place to start with "paying what they are worth" should start at the top.

...and actually letting the teacher's get on with what they are trained to do.

You are right, the problem is from the top. Too much emphasis on exam results and league tables means teacher's can't focus on what education is actually for.Reality Internet Personality

...and actually letting the teacher's get on with what they are trained to do.

You are right, the problem is from the top. Too much emphasis on exam results and league tables means teacher's can't focus on what education is actually for.

You are quite correct of course, but with funding dependent upon a schools position in the league tables, they have to act as they do or go under. What is wrong is that teaching and education is being treated as being like a business. It is not, it is a fundamental right of every child.

@dancer - You are of course right. In my day I sat on my parents knee and got taught to read before I went to school at age 5. How many parents bother to do that today? Most kids now are either created after Saturday night down the pub, or deliberately as a meal ticket to get more social money. Parents drag 'em up until 5 then hand them over to the state education system, and then effectively wash their hands of them.

Today's x-box generation of children are, in the main, the product of the preceding tv-box generation. they were taught by being planted on the floor in front of s screen with garish moving pictures, and shouted words by inane so called "children's presenters". The progress to the x-box (generic term) is even less educational with even more inane blobs that make noises, shoot, splat...
Parents, indeed family and society as a whole have a "duty of care" to ensure that children are taught, not only the "3-Rs", but also essential life skills, such as how to interact with other humans of all ages. Most of today's adults all too often see children as a "necessary inconvenience", not as our future.Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Parents, indeed family and society as a whole have a "duty of care" to ensure that children are taught, not only the "3-Rs", but also essential life skills, such as how to interact with other humans of all ages. Most of today's adults all too often see children as a "necessary inconvenience", not as our future.

What gives you the right to assume responsibility over your own child. Your offspring are members of society and should be governed accordingly. They don't exist for their own happiness. The greatest moral life for them consists of serving others and consequently the state. How SELFISH!Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

Sir Michael Wilshaw has ordered an urgent “rapid response survey” of how state schools teach the most able children. It will be the most extensive investigation of gifted and talented provision undertaken by the watchdog.

The “landmark” report, to be published in the spring, will address fears that children who get top marks in primary school are being let down by some secondary school teachers who leave them to coast rather than stretch them to achieve the best exam results.

One of the subjects often brought up is Maths, and those that decide what is taught in Maths. Somehow the area's covered has changed and for science and engineering what is taught in schools is no longer fit for purpose. This is brought home in The Engineering Council - Measuring the Mathematics Problem (pdf)

As a worked example, what is a GCSE grade A* today worth in 1993 terms? We use maths as the comparison subject, and note in GCSE today 5.5% of candidates get an A*. Being in the top 5.5% in 2012 corresponds to being in the top 15.5% in 1993, which would be a middle B grade. So today's A* GCSE is worth a middle B grade in 1993. Equally today's A grade GCSE would be a C grade in 1993 GCSE, or in old money an A grade in GCSE is a "pass" in O level maths. For context, in 1977 around 20% of girls and 40% of boys got an O level pass or equivalent; today around 16% of students get the equivalent (A or A* GCSE) reflecting the very gradual decline in overall standards over the period.

Similarly an A* in A level today corresponds to the top 17% of that cohort, which would be equivalent to top 27% in 1993, a "B" grade. An A* A-level today is worth a B grade as recently as 20 years ago.

Critics charge 'academic freedom' legislation in Colorado, Missouri, Montana and Oklahoma is just creationism in disguise

Four US states are considering new legislation about teaching science in schools, allowing pupils to to be taught religious versions of how life on earth developed in what critics say would establish a backdoor way of questioning the theory of evolution.

Fresh legislation has been put forward in Colorado, Missouri and Montana. In Oklahoma, there are two bills before the state legislature that include potentially creationist language.